The Cambias Digression

Notes and thoughts on everything from what I had for breakfast to the fate of the Universe.

  • Tales From the Archive: The Transbalkania Affair

    This is an adventure I ran for my Space: 1889 campaign back in the 1990s. Because this was written for my own use rather than for publication, it's a bit more sparse and telegraphic than usual. Transbalkania is a fictional country in the Space: 1889 universe, a tiny Balkan principality wedged in between Bulgaria and…

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  • My Fiction

    Novels: A Darkling Sea (2014), Tor Books. Corsair (2015), Tor Books. Arkad’s World (2019), Baen Books. The Initiate (2020), Baen Books. The Godel Operation (2021), Baen Books. The Scarab Mission (2023), Baen Books.   Short Stories: “A Diagram of Rapture” (F&SF, April 2000) “The Alien Abduction” (F&SF, September 2000) “Return to Skull Island” (Journal of Pulse-Pounding Narratives #1, 2001) “Train…

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  • How I Did It #9: The Eckener Alternative

    I am ridiculously proud of this story. Back in 2004 I heard that David Moles and Jay Lake were putting together an airship theme anthology, All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories. Now, I've been an airship nut since fourth grade. I've written nonfiction articles about them for Airpower and Balloon Life magazines. So I decided that it…

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  • I Recommend You Read This

    Locus magazine just released its 2011 "recommended reading" list for SF and fantasy. My novelette "Object Three" made the cut. You can read it in the November/December issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. UPDATE: Don't forget, Hugo Award nominations for 2012 are open until March 11!

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  • Ozblogging: The Road to Oz, Part 6

    Party Like It's 1909! The guests begin to arrive for Ozma's birthday party, and L. Frank Baum demonstrates an early mastery of the Superhero Crossover subgenre. All the guests are either characters from other Oz books, or from some of Baum's non-Oz fantasies. This book solidly cements all of Baum's fantasies into a single fictional…

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  • Steampunk and the End of the Future

    Two weeks ago I attended the Arisia convention in Boston and had a wonderful time. One thing which was impossible to miss was the prevalence of steampunk costumes among some of the attendees, especially the younger ones. Maybe this was just because the guests of honor were Phil and Kaja Foglio, creators of the steampunk…

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  • Feedback Wanted

    This is a slightly odd request: I want to know which of my stories people like least. I'm a terrible judge because if I didn't like them I wouldn't have written them. So which are my worst? Use the comments or email as you prefer.

    jamescambias

  • Ozblogging: The Road to Oz, Part 5

    We're going to summarize a lot here, because there's a long boring section between the time Our Heroes get into Oz and their arrival at the Emerald City. Most of it is taken up with introductions. Dorothy introduces her companions to Tiktok and Billina, who have come to welcome them. Then she introduces everyone to…

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  • Ozblogging: The Road to Oz, Part 4

    After escaping the Scoodlers, Dorothy and Company come to the end of the road, literally. It reaches the edge of the Deadly Desert, an expanse of gray sand which completely surrounds the Land of Oz. In the course of the books the Deadly Desert becomes more and more Deadly. The first time we see it,…

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  • Ozblogging: The Road to Oz, Part 3

    Our Heroes continue along the road, which they now know to be the Road to Oz. (The reader knew that from the book title.) The landscape is pleasant — if you haven't noticed, this journey is considerably less perilous than Dorothy's past exploits. The travelers have spent every night in bed, and aside from involuntary…

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The Worldbuilding Index